Stefan* started using drugs in high school, and the first thing he tried was heroin. He quit heroin after college when he was introduced to marijuana. From then on, weed became his drug of choice, even if he occasionally tried other substances. Now in his 40s, he talks about how weed makes you feel, as well as the downsides of overuse: it demotivates you, affects your short-term memory, reduces your concentration, libido, and desire to see friends and be active. .

“On a cloudy day, I want to sit all day, smoke, crack, watch movies and smoke weed, nothing compares. It’s my pleasure,” says Stefan while making tea.

How he feels when he smokes marijuana—his drug of choice—depends on the amount and type of cannabis—indica or sativa—he consumes. He likes to go a few days without smoking, because after a short break when he smokes, he feels the effect better. However, it is not easy to take these breaks because his friends smoke. Everyone smokes.

Stephan pours me some chamomile tea and begins to share his experience with the herb.

Step 1, heroin: “At that time it was the most available drug in Romania, there was no weed”

But before he started smoking weed, Stefan smoked heroin. He started in his last year of high school and continued shooting until the end of the faculty. Why heroin? “Well, it was the most affordable drug in Romania at the time. Weed was nowhere to be found, but heroin was everywhere, this happened from 1998 to about 2005,” says Stefan.

The temptation of the heroine began with the entourage of the quarter. Stephan was coming down the stairs and kept bumping into some guys with syringes in their pockets, so he decided to give it a try. And he liked it.

“Heroin is injected, but I did not become addicted to sell it from home. I was still pawning things but trying to calm down. I was the only one in that group who studied in college, the others didn’t even have eight grades.”

During college, he spent most of his time with his classmates, so he rarely got into trouble with the boys on the block, whom he avoided as much as he could. But in the summer, when he had to go out in the neighborhood, consumption became inevitable.

“It was cool, but now I wouldn’t shoot again,” says Stefan. About 25 years ago, after graduating from the university, he also graduated with an entourage from the neighborhood. He found another circle of friends with whom he discovered weed.

Step 2, weed: “If you hammer a nail and smoke, I never say no”

At the age of 25, when he started smoking marijuana, Stefan took a gram a week, and that was enough. Then he takes maybe another gram in a week or two, maybe a month or six months. Smokes occasionally. Later he started smoking every day. In fact, he smoked every day, there was a month or two when he didn’t smoke at all. It was like that until about 36-37 years old.

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